?This year's secondary schools' results have clearly duplicated previous years' records in demonstrating the high quality of education that is being offered by Presbyterian secondary schools. Such Presbyterian success will continue for many years to come because the Presbyterian institutions have become prestige centres of learning, attracting some of the best candidates from the primary school system. But more fundamental to the continuing good work of Naparima College, Naparima Girls' High School, St Augustine Girls' High School, Hillview College and Iere High School is the century-old infrastructure laid down by the Canadian and local initiators of a Presbyterian model of education.
The fact that the Presbyterian secondary education was started as far back as 1890 (with the founding of Naparima College) means that we now have the opportunity to reflect and to tease out the major considerations which have been responsible for this success. Such an exercise can have the effect of keeping these institutions on course by reminding them of the roots of their success. At the same time, other institutions, particularly those run by the State, might wish to take a leaf out of the Presbyterian formula. Topping the list for Presbyterian success has been a holistic approach to learning and teaching. This holistic approach has been multi-dimensional.
In the first place, there is no separation between the religious and the secular. The spiritual and the national spheres are inextricably intertwined. The school day begins with an invocation and throughout the year the numerous school occasions always include a religious dimension, eg Graduation/ Speech Day, Founders Day, Sports Day etc. Deeply embedded in the human mind is a fear of misfortune, unpredictable acts of nature and personal loss. For this reason, reference to the divine is always reassuring and a builder of confidence. The Scottish Canadians, led from 1868 by Dr John Morton and Rev Kenneth Grant, insisted on a holistic approach to Education, that is, the binding of religion to the process of learning.
In this way learning was vested with a divine quality and in itself constituted an act of worship: Educare est Orare (to Educate is to Worship.)
This Scottish Presbyterian love for learning fitted very comfortably into the epistemology of the major objects of Canadian mission activity, namely the 147,000 Indians who came here as indentured labourers from 1845 to 1917 and their descendants. Very few Christians came as bonded workers from India. Hindu tradition as well as Islam place high emphases on learning as a lever to upward social mobility. Therefore the Canadians received extensive support from the estate workers for the building of their schools and churches.
The Indian community saw such cooperation as their only means of escape from servitude since the colonial state was adamant in its refusal to allow Hindus and Muslims to open their own schools. It was not until 1948 that the first non-Christian school, the El Socorro Islamia, was allowed to open, a full century after the arrivals. Four years later in 1952, the Hindus were allowed to build their many schools. As was the case with all other Christian churches, the Canadians discriminated against non-Presbyterian Indians at the management level of their institutions. On the other hand, they never prevented Hindus or Muslims or African Trinidadians from attending their schools. In fact they sought to incorporate Oriental forms into their Christian practice.
Churches, for example, were given Hindu appellations such as Su Samachar (church of good tidings) or Arunodai (early dawn) or Aram Alaya (a haven up ahead). In this way the Presbyterian institutions developed as havens of harmonious Hindus, Muslims and Christians, Asiatics and Africans as a model of peaceful co-existence in Presbyterian spaces. A significant part of the holistic Presbyterian approach to education was an all-round training based on the principle of Mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body). Inspired by this dictum, Presbyterian institutions gave deliberate encouragement to a host of extra-curricular activities such as football, volleyball, cricket, athletics, scouting, literary and debating societies, magazine production, music, drama and other cultural activities.
These allowed for the development of out-of-classroom camaraderie and interaction among young people of very different backgrounds, the honing of social skills and the sharpening of talents which were useful in later life.
Sir Trevor McDonald never forgets the introduction to broadcasting which he obtained at Naparima College! The Presbyterian institutions were led by women and men who were good role models, whose dedication to teaching was a source of deep inspiration to their wards.
In a colonial society where it was difficult to find role models, the girls and boys had ample opportunity to pattern their lives after people like Margaret Scrimgeour, Grace Beattie, Mary Naimool, Phoebe Lahouri, Agnes Rampersad, Carmen Carter, Elodie Bissessar, Stephanie Shurland, Joyce and Beulah Meghu, Jean Bahadur, Sam Meighlal, Noor Hassanali, Michael Hall, Rev VB Walls, Wonnell Best, Ralph Laltoo, James Sammy, Sam Naranjit, Ken Prayag, Constance Wagar, Undine Giuseppi, Anna Mahase, Margaret Cipriani, Joy Moore, Lenore-Mahase Samaroo, Doris Fong, Sylvia Reid, Dorothy Ramesar, Pearl Mohammed, Cecile Carrington, Jennifer Beckles, Rev Swann, Rev Kirkpatrick, Stephen Alisharan, Stephen Moosai-Maharaj, Stephen Seepersad, Effle Mohammed, Rev Cyril Beharry, Clifford Ramcharan, to mention a few, and a substantial list of other exemplars too many to mention, all of whom touched the lives of thousands of students who were fortunate enough to have been influenced by great teachers of our schools.
Too often we fail to recognise the importance of role models, but young people at secondary schools seem to need exemplars whose lifestyles serve as beacons to impressionable minds. For such people, punctuality was as important as piety and hard work was the way to salvation. Presbyterian institutions were also pioneers in co-education in this nation. From the forties of the last century they carefully allowed girls from the high school (NGHS) to do their Higher School Certificate at Naparima College. This experiment was eminently successful for decades until NGHS started their own Advanced Level classes.
That successful experiment led to the establishment in 1955 of Iere High School, a co-educational high school, then known as a branch of Naparima College, under the principalship of Rev Weldon Grant, a former staff member of Naparima. In 1950 the St Augustine Girls' High School (originally a branch of NGHS) was established, coming into its own within a very short period of time. Together with Iere High, Hillview College was established 1955 and was then called Naparima College (northern branch). Again this name lasted for just a few years. The successful implementation of co-education at the secondary level (Iere) provided a model for the subsequent state inauguration of co-ed secondary schools.
That same pioneering effort was evident in the creation of the Naparima Training College in 1894. At first trained educators from Canada set a standard of competence and by the time of the First World War local pedagogues were taking over the teaching as trained certificated teachers. Hundreds of graduates from this institution (NTC) fanned out into the rural areas, taking with them the discipline and professionalism imparted on Paradise Hill. Many of these graduates who had chosen not to convert to Christianity formed the bulk of the teaching staff of Hindu and Muslim schools from the 1950s.
The cumulative result of this long period of successful educational enterprise has been the creation of a tradition of efficiency in school administration, extra-curricular activity and academic achievement. This tradition, in its turn, has developed its own momentum, propelling constant forward movement in a highly competitive environment. For this reason, a decline in standards is not on the horizon. At a time when the State seems bent on delinking church from school, on de-emphasising the role of religion in education, we need to revisit that theory, using the Presbyterian example as part of a larger model.
For the records we must note the latest 2009 scholarship results:
SAGHS gained 32 overall (11 Open and the President's Gold Medal).
NGHS gained 30 overall (nine Open and the 2008 President's Gold Medal).
Naparima College gained 21 overall (nine Open).
Hillview College gained nine overall (three Open).
Iere High gained six overall.
An overall total of 98 scholarships–of which 32 are Open Schols.
The Government awards 260 scholarships.
Thoughts:
Topping the list has been a holistic approach to learning and teaching.
Indian community saw co-operation as only means of escape from servitude.
Girls and boys had ample opportunity to learn from role models.